Last Day of First Semester

Today in class we took our test on Jared Diamond and "Guns Germs and Steel". Today was also the last day of the first semester, which means that we will be moving on to new classes. Some people will be leaving Mr. Schick and going with Mr. Powell to learn about Western Civilization. Others will just be learning Western Civilization with Mr. Schick. I am one of those people who will be staying, but a lot of my classmates will be leaving tomorrow. I hope that it goes well in the next unit, and that I may continue to have the enjoyment of learning with Mr. Schick as I did in Human Geography.

So today we took the last test of this class. I thought the test was fairly easy. Also, someone in my class actually brought in donuts, so after we finished our test we got to pick out a donut. We also shared some interesting facts when everyone was finished. I can't wait for the next semester!

What I think my Grade for Class Participation Should be and What I did Today in Class.

I think my class participation grade in the class should be an 85%. I believe that there is much to improve on if I want to get a good grade in this class. I answer questions occasionally, but I feel like I am not participating as much as other people are. In Western Civ, I want to try to be a bit more outgoing and to try to participate as much as I can.

Today we took an end-of-the-semester survey on the internet. The survey involved questions related to the the teachers teaching performance and how much we had learned during the class. I thought Mr. Schick did an excellent job teaching us this year. After we finished the survey, we looked on the C.I.A World Factbook and researched Papua New Guinea. We found some very interesting facts on the economy, transportation, population, etc. Some of them are that the unemployment rate is only 1.9%! Another fact is that Papua New Guinea's economy is the 12th fastest growing economy in the world.
Not only were the facts related to Papua New Guinea, we heard some very interesting facts about other countries as well, like that 50.5 % of the world's population live in cities, and that for the first time ever in the United States, more woman are getting Bachelor's Degrees and Master's Degrees than men are. 

Friday, January 11th 2013

Today we watched more of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond believes that New Guineans didn't have a chance to advance in their culture, because they spent too much time and effort feeding themselves. However, in the Middle East, people were able to advance because of the large amount of crops and plants that lived there long ago. Hover over time, the people of the Middle East started to destroy the environment, and the soil started to become useless. As a result. people began to expand eastward and westward of the Fertile Crescent, into Europe and into Asia. Some of the most powerful ancient civilizations, like the Greeks, Romans, and the Egyptians, are believed to be a result of this eastward and westward expansion.
we also learned that Jared Diamond believes that the answer to Yali's question lies in geography. Diamonds believes that if New Guinea shared the same geographical benefits as other countries, then they could have been one of the first to advance.

Lock-down Drill and Jared Diamond Notes

In today's class, we had a lock-down drill. Mr. Schick had told us the procedures that would happen yesterday, so we were well prepared. We heard one of the teachers over the intercom say that the lock-down would be occurring at this time. We had the lights turned off and we all went into a corner of the room which no one outside of the room could see. As we were all in the corner, we were told to be quiet. I heard lots of whispering and there was actually a game of 'would you rather...' being played next to me. After about 10 minutes, the lock-down ended and we resumed our time learning about Jared Diamond and his studies.

We learned how domestication of crops and animals can affect the advances of different cultures. Diamond inferred that sometimes, a cultures development could depend on where you were located, or in other words, geographical luck. Sometimes it could depend on where you were located and what resources were located where. Jared also wanted to know what kinds of animals people domesticated back then. Jared found out that there are 148 different kinds of species that are over 100 pounds and that can be domesticated. Of those 148, only 14 different species back then were domesticated. The list of the domesticated species are:

>Goats    >donkeys                >Reindeer
>Sheep    >Bactrian Camels   >Yaks
>Pigs       >Arabian Camels    >Mithans
>Cows    >Water Buffalo       >Bali Cattle        
>Horses  >Llamas

We also found out that none of these animals were native to the entire North American continent, Australia, and South Africa. They were however native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia.  

Talking about school shootings

Today's class was spent talking about the upcoming lock-down drill that we will be having tomorrow. We started out by saying what we would do when the lock-down occurs. We would first hear on the announcements that the lock-down would be occurring at that time. Next, we would shut off all of the lights, lock the door, and all gather into a corner of the room so that we can't be seen from the outside. If there were ever an intruder with an armed weapon in the school, he/she would not be able to see us from the outside of the classroom.  This also brought up the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the other shooting that took place at Columbine High School. We learned about some stories from the people who were victims or witnesses at both shootings. We also talked about gun laws in the United States, and which guns were legal and illegal to own. I am glad we reviewed over all of this, and I am prepared for what is to happen tomorrow.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today we continued to watch the documentary "Guns, Germs, and Steel". In the portion we watched today, we learned how the locals in Papua, New Guinea are at a disadvantage to the other groups of people around the world. We learned that in Papua, New Guinea, many of the exotic plants that grow on the island, one of them being the Sago tree, contain little to no nutritional value, and do not have enough calories to support the large population. Plus, hunting for animals can be unreliable, so the New Guineans usually depend on gathering as their main food source. Back in the prehistoric ages in the Middle East, what and barley was being grown, which provide much more nutrition than the Sago tree. Diamond believes that the availability of food was one of the factors he thought depended on the success or failure of societies.

Later in the documentary, we learned about an archaeological site called the Drab. The discovered ruins at the site is believed to be the oldest settlement known to date. Also, there is evidence that there could have been people growing food 10-15000 years ago. There was a building discovered there that was believed to be a storage for harvested crops too. The archaeologists believe that the discovery of 'growing crops yourself' is a factor that shaped history. For once, people did not have to worry about hunting for food 24/7. Now, people could get a good amount of food, and start focusing about developing a society for once. Soon after the people in the Middle East started growing food, many other groups were doing the same thing. China grew rice, America grew corn, squash, and beans, and Africa grew sorghum, millet, and yams. The way plants or crops are changed through human nature is called domestication. At the time people didn't know it, but the development of domestication became to be one of the most important discoveries in human history.

Friday January 4, 2013

In today's class, we continued to learn about Jared Diamond. We learned about his studies in Papua, New Guinea by watching a documentary that was written about him and his work. We found out in the documentary that Jared Diamond had originally came to New Guinea to study the exotic bird species that lived there, but he had also found out that the people who lived there were just as interesting as the birds. Throughout the years, he has learned to speak their language, and he has learned many skills and their culture from them. In Diamonds career, he had one person named Yali ask him a question that would completely change his studies. Yali had asked Diamond why white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans did not? In other words, Yali has asked why some groups of people had more resources than others. This led Diamond to ask himself; "what had led other groups to succeed over the other?" To answer this question, he would have to go back in time so far, where history became pre-history.

Starting the New Year

After a long break from school, we finally got back into the routine. We were handed out our essays and Finals during class too.
One of the assignments Mr. Schick told us to do was to look up information on Jared Diamond. Here is some facts on Jared Diamond.

Jared Diamond was born September 10th, 1937. He is known for his popular science fiction books, and is an author and scientist. Some of his most famous books are Guns, Germs, and Steel, and How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He is now currently a Professor of Geology at the University of California in Los Angeles. He has made many trips to Papua, New Guinea. He had originally came o New Guinea to study the native birds that lived there, but he had soon realized that the locals who lived there were more interesting than the birds. He then started to study about the locals cultures and way of life instead.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was one of Jared Diamonds most popular books. The books title is a reference to which Military power, natural resource, and natural causes could result in either a country's success or failure. Diamonds main question is this: What are the factors that could effect a countries success or failure? And what had allowed some groups to succeed over the other? For thousands of years, people have been hunting and gathering their whole life, but with agriculture discovered, it made life so much easier for people. Now that the food problem had been solved, people could start to work on how they can develop their life even more. This factor is just one of the reasons Diamond believes that some cultures can develop more than others.

Helping with my Band

Today I was not able to attend Mr. Schick's class. Because I am in my school band, I was helping the band set up the gym for an assembly at the end of the day. We were going to preform in a prayer service for the school shooting in Connecticut that occurred recently. We were also going to say goodbye to the Japanese foreign exchange students, who were leaving to go back to Japan today. I helped set up chairs and carried pedestals for the chorus into the gym. The band also had its secret Santa today. I got my person movie tickets, and I was given a bit of candy from my secret Santa. I was really excited to play for everyone, because not many people had heard our concert music before. I feel we preformed well, because everyone had a loud applause at the end. I also feel that this won't be the last time we will see these wonderful exchange students. I also hope that I do well on my final exam. Because I want to get a very good grade.

Thursday December 13, 2012

In today's class, we finished presenting our PowerPoint projects. There was one group left, and overall I thought that they did very well. There was a few grammatical errors in the presentation, but other than that, it was very good. Oh, and yesterday, this one student (Ben) was very fired up when speaking about his PowerPoint. It was actually really funny the way he was talking. Everyone wanted him to present the PowerPoint that was just presented in his fired-up voice. To be honest, it made the PowerPoint much better with him presenting it. After all of the PowerPoint's were presented, we started to review for the final exam coming up on Monday. Ben also presented the review sheet to the class as well. We reviewed topic from the beginning of the year, like "A Message to Garcia", and the Ancient Greeks and Socrates. I am interested to see what we will do tomorrow.

Presenting Our Projects

Today was the day that are U.S - China Relationship PowerPoint were due. We were either supposed to convince the public whether they should buy foreign in China, or here made in the United States. We were the first to present our projects. Our job was to convince our classmates to buy products made in the U.S. I feel like we did a very good job presenting. There was one problem we did have though. Before we presented, we planned out who would present each slide and who would do what. At the very last slide, when it was my turn to present once again, the words on the PowerPoint were blocked off by a picture in the middle of the slide. So I wasn't able to read the slide to the class, and there was a really awkward pause between. So we just continued to present the slide and we finished. We also graded other PowerPoints, and many of them were very good. We will continue to share the PowerPoints in class tomorrow.

Monday December 10, 2012

Today in class, we continued to work on our PowerPoint projects as a group. Today, there were many Japanese students visiting our school for the week, and some of then were with us in our class today to see what our school was like. They introduced themselves and the teacher shook their hands. When we started to work on our projects, I had noticed that one of my group members had worked on the project over the weekend. I am fortunate for that, because now we have a head start on the project and will finish earlier. Most of the class period, we were revising the project and making changes so it sounded good. This project is not due until Wednesday, because we do not have his class tomorrow. We should get it finished by that time, and I am looking forward to sharing the PowerPoint with the rest of the class.

2nd Quarter Project

Today in class, Mr. Schick told us about a new project we were going to do over the weekend. We were supposed to gather in groups of 4 or 5, and make a power-point presentation. The group you were in was either supposed to convince the public to buy products made foreign in China, or made here in the U.S. The group I was in was on the U.S side. I'm fortunate for it to, because I can come up with more reasons for why the public should buy products from the U.S instead of China. Currently, the group I am in and I are working on it over the weekend. I will try to get a very good grade on it, because Mr. Schick said that it counts as our Unit test for this quarter of the year. He even said jokingly whether he should make it 100 or 200 points. I feel that my group has a good chance of getting a good grade on it, and I look forward to finishing it up on Monday.

People's Republic of Capitalism 5

Today in class, we continued to watch the third part of "The People's republic of Capitalism". Mr. Schick wasn't here today, so we used one of the students computers to watch the movie. During the video, we kept getting ads and pop-ups, and it was very hard to pay attention to the video. we also heard the sounds and noises of the ads, so the ads blocked out the sounds of the video itself. The owner of the computer went up to it one or two times to try to close them, but they just kept appearing when she sat back down. About 10 more minutes into the video, the substitute of the class told us that we should switch computers out. The new computer was a lot faster, and I didn't see a single ad appear during the video. However, during the time of the video when the first computer was displaying it, I did not get much information. I remember in the video that there were many cars in China that were American brands of cars, like Ford and General Motors. Also, there are reasons why America doesn't have China-made cars on its roads. First of all, the looks of some of the cars do not appeal to all Americans. And two, the way Chinese cars are made does not meet Americas safety regulations.

Notes for 12-5-12

Some definitions of vocabulary word we are learning


Capitalism: A social system based on the principle of individual rights                                                      
Capitalism.org

Communism: A political system that aims to establish a classless society based on communal ownership
of property.
Chegg.com

free enterprise: freedom of private business to organize and operate for profit in a competitive system without interference by government beyond regulation necessary to protect public interest and keep the national economy in balance.
merriam-webster.com

free market:  a market where the price of a good or service is determined by supply and demand, rather than by governmental regulation.
Wikipedia.org

People's Republic of Capitalism 4

Today, we continued to view the video "The People's Republic of Capitalism". We finished the first segment today, and we are now going to the third. We skipped the second because Mr. Schick believes that the second isn't as important as the others. The third parts title is called "The Right Lane". The video covers the topic of automobiles in China, and how they affect the economy and China's way of life. In China, the usage of the automobile is fairly new. China only started to use automobiles about 20 years ago. Before, everyone used bicycles for transportation. Now that everyone is using automobiles, you can now travel long distances instead of going as far as your feet can take you.
Because the usage of the automobile in China is pretty recent, they're are little laws regulating who can drive and what happens when you get into an accident. In the United States, you are required to have auto insurance if you own a car, but insurance acts differently in China. The video showed Liberty Mutual, an American Insurance company, solving a problem with a n accident. Usually, the people who get into an accident apologize to each other, give the other some money, and go their separate ways. No liability, no court, and the problem is solved right on the spot. Liberty Mutual had its own van, and the company used it for arriving at accidents, and helping the people come to a solution.

People's Republic of Capitalism 3

Friday, we watched some more of "The People's Republic of Capitalism". In the video, the newscaster Ted Koppel interviewed a few Chinese people in Chongjing. One of the people she interviewed was a farm worker. Her husband is an alcoholic, and she has to do all of the farm work to send her daughter to school. Every week, when she harvests the crops, she must take the 120 pound load on her back, all the way to the place where she is selling it. Plus, with the 600 dollars she makes a year, over half of it goes to her daughters education. Another man that the movie interviewed was a local "bang bang man", or some one who carries luggage for people. From what he hears, he believes that the United States and China are in a very important relationship with each other, and that because Americans have more money, they are more generous and give good tips.

People's Republic of Capitalism 2

Today we continued watching "The People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie featured a former Briggs and Stratton worker named Pam Le-sour. She and many other employed were recently fired because the factory they worked at was relocated to China. Even though it costs less to manufacture in China and saved the company money, it left the employees of the factory without a job. In the video, Pam was applying for a new job at a local job expo. The video interviewed her, and asked questions related to the Briggs and Stratton factory being moved to China. In the interview, she stated that since she is short on funds, she does all of her shopping at Walmart. However, almost all of the products in Walmart were at one point associated with China. So even though she is against U.S companies having their factories in China, that is the main reason why Walmart has "everyday low prices" in the first place. So in reality, she is benefiting from it, and not benefiting from it at the same time.

People's Republic of Capitalism

In today's class, we continued watching the video "People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie explained how the U.S's economy and China's economy are so different, yet so intertwined with each other. In the United States, the minimum wage is 7.25 an hour, but in China, there is no law or regulation with business criteria. For example, regulations to have a clean or safe factory, or laws to pay their workers a certain amount. Usually, Chinese are lucky to be paid 4 dollars a day, when any American job gets you 7.25 an hour. In the video, we saw a Chinese demolition team destroying a house. One of the workers had her child with her while she was working, because she couldn't leave her at home and couldn't afford a daycare. It was actually quite sad to see people working so hard to earn so little in the end.
Because Chinese workers often work for very cheap, many foreign companies in the United States produce their goods in China. This allows for jobs to be lost in the United States. The reason so many things in the U.S are produced in China, is because it costs only a fraction of what it would cost to be produced in the U.S, even with round-the-world shipping costs. Yet, Chinese workers depend on foreign companies to create jobs for them, so that they may support themselves. Even though  both economies are very different, they still depend on each other so that they may prosper.

Monday November 26, 2012

After a long Thanksgiving break, we all came back to school today. In Mr. Schick's class, we got our tests back. I was glad to hear that I got a perfect score on it. When Mr. Schick called on me to reveal the answer of number 11, I was not paying attention, and there was a long awkward pause. I finally realized I was being called on, and answered the question.

After we reviewed the test, Mr. Schick told us that he arranged a guest speaker to come talk to the school tomorrow. He told us that it was Gerry Sandusky that would be talking to us. However, he isn't the child molester from Penn State, he is a local news broadcaster and announcer for the Baltimore Ravens. He has been having a bit of trouble recently, because people think that he is the Penn State coach that abused his students, when really he just coincidentally has the same name as him. He has received death threats on twitter, and  people have been giving him suspicious looks and bad comments. People automatically make the connection to the coach Jerry Sandusky, and they don't realize that the BAD one is in prison. So the main reason why he is coming here to talk to us is to give advice on what to do in a bad situation, and to talk about the trouble he has been getting from people recently.

Later, we started a video called "The Peoples Republic of Capitalism". The video is about China's economy and how it is affiliated with the United States economy. We only got through about 10 minutes of it before the bell rang. I am excited to watch the rest of the video, and most of all, to hear Gerry Sandusky speak to the John Carroll student body.